Preliminary task: using DTP and an image manipulation program produce the front page of a new school/collage magazine, featuring a photograph of a student medium close-up plus some appropriately laid-out text and mass head. Additionally candidates must produce a DTP mock-up layout of the contents page to demonstrate their grasp of the program.

First we were given the task to create a paper form draft of the magazine cover

Planning notes and Drafts:


First Draft:

Evaluation of Draft: This Picture shows what my first ideas on paper looked like. The mass head was appropriately laid out to match the target audience, in the form of a ruler and the title being Education, which shows clear relevance to school.
The centred image was of an accomplishment by students within the school, in specific the Students that are now studying A level.
The three boxes below the mass head, were the places where all the secondary schools in Hitchin, put there logo, as this is a magazine aimed at the whole consortium, the layout of the magazine is basic and in black and white so colour is a topic to be discussed on.

After having created a draft in paper form, we moved on to the task of taking medium close up photos of a student to add to the actually computerised version of the draft, we were put into pairs to work together and build the Magazine cover so ideas were mixed.
Pictures which were taken and matched the characteristics in the requirements:

Software use: Microsoft Publications

After having taken the picture we started constructing the magazine using the software mentioned above, as a result we found the pictures didn’t really seem applicable to the magazine and the task as such so we changed the theme and idea.

Title: The Students of 2010
Sub-heading: informing the whole school
Picture caption: The science runs within the students
This was a complete change to the draft I created on paper as now we were combining ideas together so we thought to start from scratch and build from square one.

Final Version: Once we received some peer feedback we edited the picture to make sure that it was medium close and those extra parts of the photo which were not required where removed or cropped. Also we edited the title and where the picture caption was going and the use of colour scheme on the cover. This was a basic structure of a front cover, as in most recent magazines, the use of overlapping images and font really has an influence on the audience it is aimed at. Such technique is used most commonly Kerrang, which is aimed at 14-23.

Research into branded identities:

Main Task: The front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine.
Target Audience: 14- 22 years old

Initial ideas:

Who is my target audience: both me and my peer have decided to keep to a audience we are familiar with ourselves, ranging from the age of 14 to 23, which is 9 years difference. The reason we chose this area in target audience is because we feel we have sufficient knowledge of what people in would look for in a magazine.

How important is the front cover: I think this is an essential part of marketing the magazine, so i will ensure that the magazine is vibrant, with use of colours which attract attention against other magazines and a structure which will look appealing, and will be informative.

Use of language: As this is aimed at a young target audience, the use of language will be a mixture of informal and formal, as i feel some of the target audience maybe maturing over time and as a result may loose interest in the informal approach. Most of the content will consist of informal information, as informality breaks down the barrier of structural writing and gives of f a relaxed feel, which people our age require. Formal use of language will occur in places such as naming an artist; the full name will be presented.

Title: Fusion, the reason we have chosen this title is because we are going to include a range of different genres in one magazine, so fusion somewhat symbolises this process. Another reason why we choose this name is because it is a one syllable word which is easy to remember.


Images and colour: The colour scheme will be maroon, white and black, we have specifically choose, three colours as, white and black are contrasting colours so will aid the magazine standing out, and the use of maroon will give the magazine the flush of colour it requires to be brought to life.

Updated colour scheme: Purple, white, blue and black. Have choosen more contrasting yet appealing colours to suit the young audience, the more vibrant the purple and blue the better, also the contrast in colours is a good mix and certainly makes the words stand out on the page.







Title and Logos: Fusion this was the name initially, there has been slight alteration in that the word is spelt differently, this is all apart of my plan to keep a working scheme through out the whole of the magazine. Fusion is now 4USION, this is followed through in my contents page: More 4U. The first two letters from fusion have been used to help aim the magazine directly to the auidence.


Design layout:

Front Page: Developement of final Draft (software used Adobe Photoshop)

these images above illustrate the development of my magazine using Adobe Photo shop, this is an important topic in the creation of my product as i switched softwares from Microsoft Publisher as i felt the features were restricted and it was causing great frustration.

Contents:

Final edition of the contents page, there has been a great change from my initial plan above, a lot of aspects changed such as colour scheme and font style,also layout which have all contributed to the final product. The reason many of these aspects have changed is due to the use of different software which has more capabilities as well as rethinking the theme of the magazine.

The first draft of my contents page, covered the use of a conventional theme, used by another music magazine, at first i felt it was the best method of portraying a content page, but after great difficulty and frustration i decided to swap software which impacted design. the contents page was created in my head and is completely unique.

Double page spread:

This is my one of my drafts of the magazine this was in the process of development. After receiving some feedback from a peer, which advised me to move the image up and change where the headline is placed and the pull out quote. This helped me characterize the product to look like an existing music magazine.

Content: Music album, Artists etc



Feedback: Specifically gained feedback from teacher, with advise on structuring the magazine cover so it suited its purpose and would be recognised as a magazine.

Detailed research (how is it appropriate to the target audience)

Front cover:

This front cover is very easy and simple to read, like much of the content, this is to allow for the target audience to be able to read fluently through the articles. The large font makes it easy to scan read as well as create a modern feel to a band of the past. The benifit of this style of layout and display is to attract attention of readers who aim to find a clean clear easy to read book, which is not filled with irrelevant information. The use of colour on this cover is also important, this has the effect of making words stand out such as 'beatles this is vital important when trying to attract the a potential reader.

Contents Page: Mojo have used a colour scheme including the colours black, white and red, the reason they have used these three colours is to match the front cover and also address the target audience using contrasted colours which is more appealing to the eye.

The images on the contents page take up three quatrers of the page, using simply black and white images with direct addressing. This is very effective as the images are almost retro or old fashioned because they are not in colour and the use of direct addressing draws in the reader as artist is looking at the audience. It is clear that the magazine is aimed at an older audience because of the tone the content protrays.

There is a combination of different style artists, which implicates that the magazine does not have a neiche market in which they would like to aim it at, therfore this magazine is aimed a a wider target audience. There is also a variety of different images used which are both live and posed, this is effective as the audience get a sence of different atmosphere protrayed from the images, making them feel both more involved and closer to the artist.

the use of clear layout makes it easy and efficent to find the cover story so the reader can get to the article they want promtly.

Initial ideas:
Artist featured: As we were given the task to take our own images to incoporate in the magazine i opted to choose for a imaginative artist called Milliza Argentino an upcoming artist who has the capability of combinding genres. The reason i have chosen a name a such is to insure that the target audience will find it amusing and interesting how a magazine has incoporated so much including unknow artist, this is what Fusion symbolises. Other artist include famous artist who have become famous, however due to the restriction of using images from online, i have opted to only mention names on the frontcover, as i possibly will have no chance of gathering actually images of the artist by hand.

Costumes: Based on the genre, the artist is on the way to fame, so costumes used were of glamour, as the artist is famale, it was important to include whats important to her such as her fur coat, which has a influence on what image she protrays to the target audience.

Types of images: direct addressing, The reason i have choosen to use this method of addressing is because, if a potential reader looks towards a magazine self and realises eyes are looking towards them, it will influence them to look twice, this is a phycological approach towards marketing a magazine.

ExplanationDecisions on music genre: For the first time, This is a magazine which is aimed at a more widened based target audience in around the same age group, as this magazine consists of a 'fusion' of genres, this doesnt mean one or two but 5 or 6. It is important to make a magazine seem appealing to the target audience, so i took the approach that, the more genres the better the approval of audience it is aimed at.

Features addressing target audience: The use of the term 4U in the title is direct form of addressing the target audience, this is discretely hidden in the title but it will come to the target audiences understanding there is two uses for the term, which will be evident on the content page.

Draft pages:

Progression of Mag Front Cover

At the start of this project i decided to use publisher as the software to create my three peices of work, unfortunately it was not able to supply me with enough tools to construct a high level magazine, so in the last minute i opted to change my software choice to Photoshop and it has been incredibly benificial, compared to these drafts displayed above, my final draft of front cover has taken a turn for the good, even though the new edition is more simplicitic the image overlaps the logo, i have incorporated a sky line and other features which are required of a magazine quickly and efficiently due to previous uses of this brilliant software.

Software use:

Adobe Photoshop CS4: the reason I chose to use this software is because I have previous experience using it for similar purposes, therefore felt it was best suited for the task we were set and I felt I could use the tools to produce a professional document which complies to the set characteristics.

Microsoft word & Publisher: I have been using these programs for a very long time and find theses softwares were capable of dealing with different aspects of producing a magazine this includes, writing the document for the double page spread, planning prototypes of the magazine and experimenting different colour combinations for the final piece.

Paint: this was used to cut and edit images which required very little editing this is a key and efficient tool which makes editing basic photos simple and easy. Paint was used for editing photos until, i began producing the product on Adobe Photoshop.

Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

First of all, it was essential i payed great attention to existing branded magazine, this was important as it gave me understanding of what is required in magazines and how different aspects such as language are adapted to address the target audience. In my magazine i have include features which exist in other magazines such as kerrang, an example feature would be the subheading on contents page in the top right corner of my contents which defines the page number and name of magazine. The reason for choosing to use a feature as such is because it is apart of including small areas of detail which can be of assistance to the target audience when reading the document. A example section in terms of development occurred on the front page using the circle shape as a selling point of the magazine, this idea was developed from NME, this feature is essential as it is a form of adding value, it helps to justify another reason for the target audience to purchase the magazine. In terms of development, i created my own from scratch, and used persuasive language to increase likeliness of sales. The were a few challenges which occurred in terms of design layout, most large magazine brands have their own design layout for their magazines, and it was essential i questioned why they were formed in such way and what are the benefits, after great thought, the layout of my double page spread, was influenced by NME with information on one page and the other consisting of an image, this is a clean layout which is not to overwhelming for the target audience and has a large image which helps in terms of visual affect of the article.

Overall there are many ways my magazine has been adapted to suit the requirements of the target audience, whilst including adapted features of other magazines too, in order to create a realistic magazine which could be put out to sale in real life. However i would look into further development before actually launching the magazine as it still has aspects which could be improved.

How does your Media product represent particular social groups?

I have defined my magazine to represent particular social groups via the use of combination of genres, these genres identify the social groups under categories such as RnB, in terms of business, to restrict the magazine to a certain social group would of impact on sales as it will be aimed at a small audience range whereas the use of combination of genres means the reach for target audience has been widened, and the fact that im the only magazine that combines so many different genres including rap, grime, rnb and dub step, i have a unique selling point which should impact sales rate. The images i have provided in the magazine have a certain way, with the double page spread, the image used is important as the picture shows character and professionalism of the artist and this is also evident in the context by the way she speaks. It is important that social groups are portrayed in a way which suits the target audience as this is a consumer based magazine. I have used particular conventional font styles in the magazine to portray a matching theme to the social groups, using rounded letters as well as bold fonts which all have an impact on how the magazine represents the social groups along with design feature of theme. The use of colours in the media product is important as it portrays the social groups as vibrant artist and this is accomplished by the contrasting the colours. The black and white combined with the blue and purple, combined create a great theme enlightening the target audience with blossoming artists.

what kind of media institutions might distribute my media product?

Super markets- This is the main form of distribution i would expect for a magazine as such, the unique selling point of this magazine would get it onto the shelves of large retail supermarkets such as tesco and asda, because it is aimed at such a wide age range, providing large quantity of demand, also another aspect which would impact whether the supermarkets would distruibute the media product is whether it is expensive or inexpensive and how it would cope with existing branded magazines.

Newsagents- This is another media institution which would distribute the magazine, small retail newsagents however maybe restricted to certain number of target audience members as this is aimed at a young audience as explained, which means that the product will fail to sell if not marketed properly. It is important that research is carried out before planning to export magazines to newsagents to ensure that sales occur, this can be done via sampling, producing the product and recieving feedback and sells records to see whether the product will thrive against the compition in the magazine market.

who would be the audience for your media product?

From the final production of my media product I would say that the magazine addresses a large variety of people or a few, depending on the requirement of the audience. If a consumer is looking for a magazine with great detail of information into one genre, my magazine is not aimed at them, my magazine could be aimed at a niche market specifically aimed at people who enjoy more than one genre however it may be so large that it is not characterized as a niche market. Compared to my initial understanding of the target audience, i feel i have tried to maintain consistency, but there are areas which could be touched up or edited to completely define the term target audience in regards to my product. To stereotypicalize i would particularly aim this at an audience with an interest in urban culture.

How did you attract & address your audience?

Mainstream and underground artists: it was important that the magazine consisted of a range of different artist with big names and unknown names, as theses themes of artist, creating an almost like real life and fame life affect on the audience. The use of multiple genres is another feature which contributes to attracting the audience as it implicates that you can purchase one magazine which has a range of genres included rather than purchasing 5 one genre different magazines to accomplish the same task, this is financially beneficial and useful. There is a variety of different areas to the magazine, such as album reviews etc, helping consumers make decisions on purchasing CD etc.

Brand name: 4USION with the use of 4U directs the magazine to the audience aswell as symbolising the magazine is aimed at them it also links to the theme that the magazine is made up of the fusion of genres. It is important that the title is addressing the audience directly because when the magazine is on the shelf it is important the the magazine is qwerky and unique to attract attention against the existing brands.

Language: The use of language is informal but not to an extent parent of young children of about 13 years old would find inappropriate, however, i still am debating whether the elder members of the target audience may find the magazine too formal? Also it is difficult when aiming at such a wide audience to please everyones requirements.

Images: the use of images help attract the audience, a picture of a beautiful women artist would certainly attract a lot of male attention, however if this was a consistent monthly magazine images would vary so this would not always be the case. The image however does portray what the magazine is about i.e. raw talent and mainstream fame. 'rags to riches'.

What have I learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

there are many things i have learnt from this task, i have become a fluent user in Photo shop and I feel comfortable using the software for editing picture ect, a long term benefit of this is that i will be able to use my skills in this software for other subjects such as Business and Economics, if I am required to make a poster as a part of an advertisement piece, another benefit is that in IT we will be using similar software in coursework, so having understanding in this software will make it easier to use the others.

The benefit of using blogger, is that i have gained more understanding on the way products are constructed as this has made me realize the capabilities of other softwares and how much we rely on technology to produce so much in this world, in other words i feel the use of technology is important in life and will be a major influence in anything we create in the future.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do i feel i have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

There are many different areas of producing a magazine which i have learnt, it has informed me about what is required of producing a magazine, also how context is important and has to link to the target audience its aimed at. I have personally learnt and mastered skills on programs for further use in the future. I have also learnt personal skills such as time organisation and that it is important in the process of creating a product and in a real life situation i would have to manage my time more efficiently and thoughtfully. The process from the preliminary task to the final product taught me about ideas and how to link them to purpose and how to address the purpose whether it be in written form or visual form, this is more and more important in the economy as there are growing numbers of substitute products which means a business may fail to thrive if demand levels are not met and this could be a cause of purpose to target audience not met.

All in all there are many improvements and skills i have made or learnt which will be effective and essential in years to come, they have made me more aware of media and coverage and how documents are shaped to suit the purpose of the audience.